Friday, I’m in love!

Why is it that Friday can always make everything better?

Friday and a Sonic Cranberry-Limeade - That makes it ten times better. Especially when I'm sitting in the 100+ heat with one of my best girl friends talking about her upcoming baby shower.

Now I won't talk too much about the MILLIONS of craft ideas that I have floating around in my head. I know that she sometimes stumbles onto my blog and I don't want to ruin any surprises. But I can tell you that I want to make almost everything that comes from Creation Corner.

There is nothing like a good craft that can't lift my spirits. I am going to attempt to arrange my craft room a little better because right now it's a pig sty  a little unorganized. I am very lucky that my mom is letting me borrow her sewing machine.

A couple of weekends ago Joann’s had a major sale and I got some items that will help me create wonderful little treats for Nicole’s little boy. They also had patterns on sale. I had no idea how much patterns cost. Holy Cow! I am so glad that I live in the time of the internet tutorial. But thinking about it for a moment, I think 50 years ago I would have taken a home ec. class and learned how to make my own patterns.

I also have some very clever friends who make their own patterns. I’m telling you – AMAZING stuff is just within my reach.

Nicole is going to be a wonderful mother. She has been a fantastic friend to me over the last 7 years and I feel so blessed to have such a friend in my life. I can’t wait to meet her little man. I know that the fun we have had over the years will only continue – we’ll just have her baby in tow.

Time management

As I sit here avoiding those papers sitting on my kitchen table, I am thinking about time management. How do I use my time? Am I happy with all of the things I can get done in a day?

The answer is most often - I haven't done enough. There is not enough time to do everything I want. I want to be able to spend time on my lesson plans. Spend time grading papers and getting assignments into the gradebook. Clean the kitchen, take the dog for a walk, write in my blog, do some laundry. All of the things I would like to be great at.

But how do you find the time to be perfect? I always feel the need to be the best wife, friend, teacher, daughter, granddaughter, all around great gal.

But alas it's not to be.

Recently I have felt overwhelmed with all of the little things I need to do during the day. Verses the things I would like to be able to get done. I would like to be able to go and visit with my gramma. I would like to sit with her and take care of her so my mom can have a break.

But there are papers to grade. lessons to write and so many other 'things' that need to be done.

The school year has started out well. I like all of my classes so far. I have a lot of students that I had last year. So that makes it a little easier to remember names. I have almost everyone down, except a few girls that always seem to look a like.

We will be gearing up soon for homecoming and various other events during the school year. So the train of work will keep on chugging along.

I'm lucky that I have a wonderful husband and good friends to keep me afloat.

Baby Shower Mobile

My dear friend Nicole has a sister who is having a little girl this fall. For her upcoming shower Nicole and I did a craft that will double as a decoration and then as a hanging mobile in the baby’s room. Here is a simple idea anyone can recreate. AND the great thing is that it’s budget minded. The whole thing was around 10$. But I bet you could do it cheaper if you had a curly-willow (or equally cool tree) in your yard.

As all good crafters do – we looked to the wonderful Martha Stewart for inspiration. Her Bird Mobile was so cute – and we wanted something similar.

Here is what we ended up doing. At Joann's they have these large bunches of twigs. We bought one bunch and some fake flowers – manned ourselves with glue guns and hit the ground running.

I was able to undo the wire that held the large bunch together and divided them into two bunches. Used the wire to regroup the twigs and began to glue on our flowers.

Nicole’s sister’s shower is pink, yellow, and peachy orange – so we bought a sprig of yellow hydrangea and a sprig of cherry blossom. We also got a branch of green leaves as the flowers didn’t have much greenery to them.  After taking them off of the plastic branches we began to glue them down.

We tried not to over do it because we liked the simplicity of the branch Martha had created. We also tried to glue the flowers at every angle that way if Nicole’s Sister decides that she wants to hang it above the crib the baby won’t be looking at the boring side of the branches.

Here is the finished branch before we put the birds on them. We got fishing line at Walmart to use in order to hang the birds. Because the shower was still a few weeks away we didn’t put the birdies on. Last year when we had a polka-dot themed shower for our friend Kristine we made polka-dot garland. Well – if you aren’t super careful it will get all tangled – so we decided to error on the side of caution so the birdies won’t be flying until the day before.

We printed the birds from Martha’s website on purple and pink card stock. I’m sure if you are crafty enough you could cut them out by hand but who doesn’t love an easy cut out! I know I do.

Happy Crafting!

School Dreams.

So yesterday two of my good friends and I went down to Ikea to enjoy some Swedish goodness.

We didn't have any meatballs. But we did act like goofballs.

Last weekend I went with Nicole to the salvation army store in town. I got a lamp for 5 dollars. Because it was half off!!! AMAZING! But it didn't have a lamp shade. So when we were in the lighting section Nicole pointed out a very cool lamp shade.



I got this lovely shade and it's very happy sitting on my bedside table.

While we were enjoying a wonderful Mediterranean meal we were talking about school. My friend Jess mentioned that she had a school dream and then I said "watch - now we're all going to have school dreams."

- Sure enough last night I had a dream about school. It was the first day of school but I didn't know what classes I was teaching and was also late getting to work so when I walked in my classroom they kids were already there. It was awful.

I don't have to go back to work until August 9th but I'm already having dreams. This isn't a good sign for my sleep habits.

Mini Vacation

So this past weekend I drove out to see my best friend Casey. She lives in Phoenix. So I packed up my little honda and got on the road. I enjoy spending time driving. It's about a five and a half hour drive and I rocked out to some mixed cds I made, and looked around at the beautiful, dry scenery.

We have been friends for over ten years. We met while going to NAU. She works in marketing, and so when I got to town I was able to meet her in her office. I don't work in an office, and have never been in that kind of work environment. It was fun to see her in her element. Casey is really good at what she does and that company is lucky to have her.

After the office we went and got some yummy Thai food for dinner and visited her community garden plot. She has sun flowers, tomatoes, cucumbers, and some herbs. A man in her mom's neighborhood gave the community land (when he passed away) and requested that a garden be created. Each person pays a yearly fee for up keep and water. There is a food bank plot and a box for extra food that others have that would be given to the food bank. It's a really awesome program. Who doesn't love fresh fruits and veggies?!

Saturday we did some shopping and then watched My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding. That was part of plan for me to go out and see her in the first place. Casey had DVR-ed the six episodes and so we had a mini marathon. It was great.

Then we went to Bingo After Dark (BAD Bingo). It was soooo much fun. Eight Dollars got us 11 rounds of bingo and a lot of glow sticks. Half way through the sessions they stop and have a dance party. There had to be 500 people in the room. AND on the last game of bingo - I GOT A BINGO! I won 150$ It was awesome.

Sunday we enjoyed some samples at Costco and a trip to the pool. The high on Sunday was 111 - soooo hot!

Monday I packed up my bags and headed home. It was a great weekend!

Summer Housewife

Why is it that when I am on summer vacation I want to be a housewife. Like full on butcher, baker, candle sick maker.

I really want to get a sewing machine this summer. I have two very dear friends that are both pregnant and I want to make almost everything from Creation Corner!

I also really want to try and bake bread. My grandmother is a wonderful baker and every year on major holidays she bakes these amazing bread loaves. Her best are her egg breads. I'm not sure of the official name but they are light and fluffy and wonderful. I really want to try these rolls. My friend Carly is an amazing woman and mother. I pretty much want to be her when I grow up. Always have.

So I'm off to attempt a few of these house wifey projects of mine.

Here are a list of things I would like to tackle this summer:

Clean out and organize the garage
Bake bread
Bake a cake from scratch
More crock pot cooking
Clean out my closet
Organize the Pantry
Craft various craft things

It's going to be a great summer!

Alive and tired

It's been a few weeks. I know.

A lot has been going on around here. I'm now down to 19 days until the end of the school year.

I'm tired and stressed. And have a few hundred papers to grade and enter. Two books two finish teaching.

It's all insane really.

But - I'm going to be crafting up a storm this summer. I am interested in investing in a cheap but reliable sewing machine. My Gramma has two amazing machines that she payed big bucks for in the 80's when she was making wonderful dresses for me as a petite little girl. I go over to her house for bigger projects - like when I made some friends aprons for Christmas. But an old friend of mine Tasha over at Creation Corner has so many amazing little projects that I think I could tackle if I had my own little machine.

But who am I kidding. Who wouldn't want to hang out with Gram, and use her sewing machines. Which she says are the equivalent of Cadillacs in the sewing world.

All I know is - I need to get to June 8th.